One-fifth of LT parliament millionaires

VILNIUS- The new parliament of Lithuania that took office last week includes surprisingly fewer millionaires than theprevious.

According to declarations of income and property presented to the CentralElectoral Committee, nearly 30 parliamentarians of the new 2008-2012 parliamentcan be called millionaires, as compared with 43 in the parliament thatcompleted its tenure on Nov. 17.

As the MP candidates only turned in declarations of their personal propertyand income, actual property of their families can be far bigger.

Based on the declarations published by the Central Electoral Committee, theLabor Party's leader Viktor Uspaskich is the wealthiest MP, with 47.87 millionlitas (EUR 13.9 mln) in property, securities, art valuables and cash declared.Furthermore, he has granted a credit of 1.4 million litas.

The second-wealthiest MP is Valdemaras Valkiunas, former Social Democrat whojoined the parliamentary group of the Liberal and Center Union. He has declared34.35 worth of property and cash.

The newly-elected parliament also includes two millionaire families:Parliamentary Speaker Arunas Valinskas declared property and cash estimated at3 million litas and his wife Inga Valinskiene declared 2.9 million litas. Theydeclared having each granted loans of 1.16 million litas.

Liberal MP Kestutis Glaveckas declared 1.65 million litas, while his wife,Conservative Ruta Rutkelyte, declared 9.7 million litas.

Meanwhile, the poorest declaration was that of the National ResurrectionParty member Saulius Stoma - the politician claims to have no declarableproperty, securities and no debts. His savings amount to 1,307 litas.

Vytautas Gapsys of the Labor Party also indicated no property, but indicated20,000 litas in cash and 6,000 litas in outstanding debt.

In 1999, two millionaires won parliamentary mandates in Lithuania,as compared with 13 in 2000 and 28 in 2004.